#unhinged ranting

https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/netflix/the-sandman-season-2-showrunner-allan-heinberg-interview

"All those scenes on the Stony Cliff, I genuinely wasn’t worried about it. Because if they work on the page, if they work in the comic, I knew it would work here if we had done all our work up until that point and really earned those moments."

Did you... earn those moments? Or did you undermine them by telling a completely different story in the show than the one in the comics? (And then slotting the comics ending on?)

"So it was having to sort of invent those scenes, that’s what was really daunting to me. Everything he does before he gets to the Stony Cliff, essentially."

All the scenes you invented of him... wanting to live and trying to prevent his fate? Those scenes, you mean?

"So those scenes were mainly about making sure. That viewers understood why Dream was doing what he was doing and why he’s making the choices he’s made."

Did we... understand that?

"We actually shot a much longer version of the exchange with Matthew, exactly as the comic is, talking about Matthew’s mortality. But it ended up sort of not working, so we didn’t end up using those parts of that scene."

AHHHHHHHHHHHH 💔💔💔💔💔

"The things he’s gone through these two seasons have shown him that he’s not the Dream the world or this massive universe needs right now, and he’s got to come back as Daniel."

ugh

"He thought he was the best Endless out of the seven because he was the best at being an Endless. And he finds out, especially in the course of this second season, that he was actually the worst"

?????

"and that his brother, who he blamed for having been cowardly enough or selfish enough to run away from the things he was supposed to do, actually had the purest heart."

??????

"Because Destruction’s heart was so pure and breaking, he had to leave."

??????

Dream: I think we inadvertently killed your friends on our journey to find you, I am sick with guilt

Destruction: Yeah those were my traps LOL OH WELL. Have some salad!!!

"I think it means hope. This show just keeps coming back around to hope. Dream deciding to end this incarnation of himself and be reborn as Daniel is a deeply hopeful moment."

HAHAHAHAHA HRRRRR HRRRRRR HRRRRRRR 😭😭😭😭

"And the more I thought about it, the more I wanted the Johanna/Corinthian relationship to have been Dream’s parting gift to Johanna in gratitude for her friendship."

HURRRRRR HRRRRRRR HRRRRRRR no but really what the fuck

"Here at last was someone who loves Johanna"

But he just met her, how does he love her- oh. You meant because he was... programmed to? Oh. I see. That's. That's cool.

"The relationship also allowed us to dramatize the ways in which this new Corinthian is different from his predecessor."

HURRRRR HURRRRR HURRRRRR you don't say

https://www.thewrap.com/the-sandman-season-2-finale-explained-showrunner-allan-heinberg/

"[In TKO] The Dream in the comics sort of stays in the kingdom, knows he can’t leave under penalty, and sort of waits for death to come to him."

Uh... is that right? I don't think that's right. I think he does much more than that. (I think he does something that I, personally, as a reader, don't like; but I still think he does it.)

"We knew at the outset that our Dream had to get over himself and his grief and his guilt and try to save his kingdom and save his people and do the best for his realm."

All right!!!

"...and it sort of wakes him up in a way that enables him to get through the rest of the fight for who he loves and to say his goodbyes and to really make an informed decision, by the end of it, that what he’s doing when he’s on the stony cliff with Death is the best thing for the realm possible. He could not be the Dream he wanted to be, or even thought he was, the Dream that we need right now, and so he allows himself to be reborn."

Oh.

Ugh.

"Heinberg said that this Dream benefits from being part human"

I thought his humanity was burned away in the fire

"meaning there is hope he is able to create connections with his siblings in a way Morpheus never could."

Uhhhhhhh. If you say so. And also the idea that the issues in the siblings' relationships were only on Morpheus’s end??? PLEASE.

"“Like Lucien says to him, ‘you never know, you might actually enjoy them this time,’” he said. “To me, when the camera comes around and Jacob smiles you’re like ‘he is going to enjoy them this time,’ it ended on that sort of joyful, hopeful note.”"

First of all "Lucien" do these fucking publications not have editors and second of all AHAHAHAHAHAHA HURRRRR HURRRRRRR HURRRRRR "ending on a joyful hopeful note" I literally felt like I had been kicked in the stomach!!!!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/sandman-part-2-finale-netflix-future-allan-heinberg-interview-1236327950/

"Dream realizes he has grievously hurt the people he claims to love. He sees that his own behavior up until that point has been terrible, selfish, manipulative. [He’d thought] he was being honorable and the leading light of all the Endless, and he finds out that, in fact, he’s the bad guy in all these people’s stories. It completely guts him, and contributes to his decision to end this version of his reign and come back as a more human Dream."

So this is something that is repeated A LOT, about Comics Dream and Show Dream, and I just...

He's the bad guy in Nada's story. Obviously. That is putting it beyond mildly, he is the WORST GUY in Nada's story, 1000%. But he... undoes it as much as it can be undone? He gets her out of hell. He sends her back to life to be reincarnated as a baby (by her choice) in the comics. He sends her back to life to be reincarnated as her adult self (by her choice) in the show.

What he did to her was unforgivable.

But. He could, and does, undo it as much as possible. (And I am quite sure that in the show newly reincarnated Nada is out living her best life 💜💜💜💜)

So how does Dream becoming Daniel help here exactly?

He is *a* bad guy in Orpheus's story. Not the only one. At all. By far. And so much of that shitshow was Death's fault, so much of that shitshow was Destruction's fault, so much of that shitshow (in the comics) was Desire's fault. But none of them have to die for their sins and be reincarnated as babies stolen from their mothers so I guess I'm not entirely sure why Dream does? And I guess I'm not entirely sure how Dream becoming Daniel helps here?

Dream is also *a* bad guy in Alex Burgess's story, but this one is complicated, because Alex is - obviously - a gigantic bad guy in Dream's story as well.

And in the comics, we get kind of hit over the head about how Morpheus was too mean and proud and stubborn and unforgiving to release Alex from his torment. So Daniel does it.

But in the show, Morpheus releases Alex from his torment instead. MORPHEUS. I have written about this so many times because it is so fundamentally important and also completely changes the narrative of the entire story, but for some reason I guess Allan doesn't seem to think so???

Ok. Who else. Who else is Dream the bad guy for. Lyta. He's the bad guy in Lyta's story. Ok, he'll kill himself and become Daniel. No wait!! That won't help! That makes him worse in Lyta's story because now her baby is lost forever!!

I guess, if I'm totally honest, the entire "Morpheus is THE WORST thank god that bitch is gone and we have Daniel now yayyyyy just what the world needed 🥰🥰🥰🥰" summary never really fully resonated with me?

Especially since, in the comics, the 2 people we see Daniel forgive / release from torment are Alex Burgess and Ric Madoc (🤢), and in the show Morpheus has already had a beautiful and cathartic moment of peacemaking and mutual forgiveness with Alex - so I guess I'm not quite sure where this "yikes Daniel is the Dream we all need!!!!" narrative is actually coming from?

Because - and I've said this a lot -

By my reading, in the comics, Morpheus is deeply suicidal. He orchestrates a complicated suicide-by-magical-cop in order to bring about a new Dream with a "kinder point of view." (He also steals a baby from a mother and then manipulates/uses said mother's grief to bring about this transition, and he also does it in such a slow, miserable, long drawn out way, to the point that the entire Dreaming is suffering and thinking he doesn't care about them (when of course he does!!). These two things make it difficult for me to see any of it as hopeful. But fine. He's suicidal. He thinks we deserve a new Dream. He makes it happen.)

In the show I am not seeing any of that!!! And it could be - this is the new tragedy. He's not suicidal. He's not orchestrating his demise. But the second he killed Orpheus he was doomed. But he did it anyway, because he was finally able to love his son completely unconditionally, even if it meant sacrificing himself in the process.

So I was pretty sure that's what the new tragedy was.

Which is why all of Allan's comments about how "Morpheus is so awful so he made the decision to give us all a new Dream that's better for the universe, yay, hopeful ending 🥰" comments are honestly just making me wonder if I watched a different show, hrrrr hrrrrr hrrrrr.

(And again - I am sorry to be so critical! I wanted to like all of this so much more than I did! But I read Allan's comments and I just think: that's Show Morpheus that you're talking about?? Are you sure?? Because I am just not seeing what he is apparently seeing, or what he apparently thinks he's showing us... )

Hrrrrrr hrrrrrrr I guess

You have Toriel, so guiltridden she couldn't protect her own children that she devotes herself to never letting another child leave again. And then they do!! over and over again, that guilt compounds until it's the center of her life and every choice she makes!!

And obviously Asgore, so guiltridden that he couldn't protect his own children from humans that he spends the rest of his days trying to get out and get revenge on them--as if that will stop the voices in his head saying, if you had been out there with them you could have stopped it, you could have stopped those humans from killing your children, and maybe he could have!! Or maybe not!! He'll never know and it eats him from the inside out!

Alphys, oh my sweet summer child this fandom does not deserve you!! Alphys, so guiltridden from her own perceived failures as a scientist that she began to try anything, anything to make the King happy, and it seemed to be working at first, and then it was so everlastingly worse, how can you cause something worse than death?? without even trying??

And it shows up in little ways, silly ways, too! Ways you wouldn't even think about as guilt! Undyne! She feels guilty that she won't let Papyrus join the Royal Guard so she gives him cooking lessons instead! Papyrus feels guilty that he's not in love with you after one date so he'll "keep being your cool friend and act like this never happened!"

SANS MY BOI don't even get me started. His guilt isn't as physically obvious but he made a promise to toriel, he promised her he would keep the human safe, and in timelines where you save everyone he follows you pretty much all throughout the Underground (even if he doesn't do anything to help smh) because he'd feel guilty not doing it, and in timelines where you kill everyone he feels guilty for not stopping you, AND in those SAME timelines he feels guilty for stopping you because it means he's breaking his promise to Toriel to keep you safe I!!! This boy can fit so much cosmic guilt in him!!!!

Asriel! FLOWEY!! Do you ever wonder if he feels guilty about being the one to wake up again? The one to survive, when Chara had to die twice?? He sits at their grave and he will do anything, anything to drown out those thoughts so he befriends and kills and torments and it's all the same and it's all useless!!

And their guilt compounds each others'! Toriel makes Sans make that promise because of her own guilt, which increases his! Asgore's guilt is what pushes Alphys so far past the limits of ethical science, because he increases hers!

And all of this, all of this, ALL OF THIS pales in comparison to you!!!

You!! The player! You return to the Underground after maybe accidentally killing Toriel or a few others because you didn't know, you never wanted to hurt them!! You listen to Flowey and you come back and you save them all!

You! The player!!! You cry at the ending and you'd feel guilty, so guilty about letting them all go, wouldn't you? So you ignore Flowey's pleas to let it alone, and you come back again, you say hello to your dear friends but this time it isn't the same, this time you kill them all because you want to see everything this game has to offer, might as well get your money's worth, the fights are cool, right?? And then you get hit with the most unsatisfying atomic bomb of an ending and the only thing left is your own reflection staring back at you from the black screen of your computer as the horror dawns, what have you done???

YOU!!! The player! You go back again even though there is no Flowey left to tell you to, and you save them all again because I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, nobody deserves what I did to all of you, and it's all good, nobody remembers, and then you get to the end. The game knows what you did!!! It never forgot, and it'll make certain you never forget either!! Guilt!! Guilt, guilt!!! It's baked into the code of this game!!

WHY IN THE NAME OF CHRIST WAS THIS SCENE NOT INCLUDED

Where was Matthew's screen time??? At all??? His bond with Morpheus is like nothing else and it is my favorite thing and "maybe not going is all I've got left" or whatever the fucking quote is is like my favorite thing, but they took that out of SoM, they took that out of TKO, why, just WHY.

Matthew and Morpheus’s bond is so intense in the comics and it's even more intense in s1 of the show and it was just so completely discarded??? Why????

And don't think for a second that I'm complaining about some of Matthew's lines going to Lucienne, or some of the Matthew/Morpheus moments becoming Lucienne/Morpheus moments, because I love Lucienne more than anything and Vivienne Acheampong is a MARVEL and Morpheus & Lucienne’s relationship was handled so so so well. But why was Morpheus & Matthew's relationship also not handled well??? Did we even get an answer about whether or not Matthew and Nuala are going to stay in the Dreaming??? (I would say, maybe that will be answered in the special next week, but I kind of doubt it.) Why were they both just disregarded? Why did they cut all the Matthew/Morpheus/Daniel discussions of friendship?

Why were these scenes not included??? Fucking, why??

Also were Lucifer and Mazikeen not at the funeral???? (Or did I miss them because I was crying so hard that is possible)

2. WHY IN THE NAME OF CHRIST WAS THIS SCENE NOT INCLUDED

Orpheus lighting the funeral pyre? No? Or Orpheus being at the funeral at all? Did I miss him? Would it have been "too confusing for netflix" to have dead characters at the funeral? Because the comics have a lot of dead characters at the funeral and it's really nice? But no? Couldn't do it I guess?

3. WHY IN THE NAME OF CHRIST WAS THIS SCENE NOT INCLUDED

Just kidding. I know why. It's because it would give audiences the tiniest sliver of hope that some tiny part of Morpheus is alive somewhere, walking the stars with his brother and visiting with his friend, and that is, apparently, illegal. No hope for anyone, he's 1000% dead, and here's Stephen Fry to make an incredibly condescending speech about how only death gives meaning and anyone who doesn't get that is a buffoon who should be ashamed of themselves. Never mind that Merv and Abel can "come back from the dead" (they are dreams) and it's perfectly fine. Gilbert is too good for your offers of recreation and here he is to make a self-righteous speech about it!!!!

Confession. I have always hated that speech in the comics. And I have also - ALWAYS - assumed that it was NG talking to DC, about Morpheus. "Death gives everything meaning, I am dead, don't you dare bring me back that will fuck up everything and fuck up this story I wrote." Right??? It's like he's just blatantly saying "I created this character, I gave him an ending, I DON'T want you guys resurrecting him with "no one stays dead in comics" type stuff. I don't want you ruining my character. Leave him dead and you can ruin Daniel instead." And DC said: ok.

But that was a comic several decades ago. This is an already-ended-at-2-seasons tv show now. There is LITERALLY NO FEAR of Netflix resurrecting Morpheus and making him go on adventures. There just isn't. His story is over. Fine.

But why couldn't we have the tiniest sliver of hope that he somehow, in some way shape or form, made it off of his island and is out there somewhere in the universe? Even just as a dream? Even just as a memory? Even just as a something? I don't understand why he has to be GONE GONE GONE, especially when in the comics there is a tiny hint that some small dream/memory/part of him may have gotten away?

The answer, I guess, is that they didn't want it to be the tiniest bit ambiguous. And they didn't want me to have any hope. And if I don't like it, Gilbert will come and make another speech at me, I guess. (I don't know why they had to leave in Gilbert's idiotic line about "look how much better Daniel is, Morpheus never apologized." Especially since Morpheus pretty much did nothing else except apologize for all of s2. Whatever.)

Credit where credit is due, I think Gilbert's stupid "Morpheus never apologized" line was one of the only "omg Daniel is so much better" parts that they left in. Because The Wake is full of little "omg morpheus was so mean, I'm so glad he killed himself, daniel is so much better hooray ❤️" moments that honestly make me want to resort to violence. ("Morpheus is so mean he would never pet the Gatekeepers." He fed them apple slices out of his own hands!!!!! "Morpheus is so mean he couldn't even forgive Alex Burgess or Ric Madoc :(" Well Ric Madoc is a disgusting rapist monster and why the fuck is he even at this funeral anyway?) So yes. Credit where credit is due. They had Morpheus himself forgive Alex Burgess, which I loved. They had nobody forgive Ric Madoc, which I also loved. They had several characters express that they were having a hard time with a new guy being Dream, and no one was shamed or mocked or scolded for this. It was (mostly) stressed that Daniel isn't necessarily "better" - he's just different. As far as I can tell, the entire "this was all Morpheus’s suicidal plan all along" plot was completely removed. These were all changes that I liked. I liked pretty much everything about Daniel, and I am usually very neutral/kind of disinterested/kind of don't care for him? They got rid of all the "why are you mourning Dream, Dream is right there!!! are you stupid???" vibes from The Wake that made me insane. They made Lucienne's story more complicated and more emotionally realistic and Vivienne Acheampong knocked it out of the fucking park and I am crying again now just thinking about her performance.

For my next question, is it just me, or was Destruction kind of a dick.

It may be just me.

Because I struggle with him a LOT. And when he shows up for the funeral - doesn't pay his respects to Morpheus - doesn't visit his family (including Despair who talks nonstop about how much she misses him and he just doesn't give a shit I guess???) - and is, honestly, imo, kind of condescending to Daniel- I just kind of don't know.

Also do we believe for a second that Destruction had never been to Dream's palace??? Over the billions of years since the beginning of time? That seems ridiculously unlikely?

I need to rewatch, maybe I'm just emotionally raw right now, but Destruction just pissed me off. Desire, Despair, and Delirium were incredible. Mason Alexander Park is a marvel and Desire's funeral speech was perfection. Destiny's funeral speech continues to be the worst thing ever written. I guess I was expecting they may have changed that since Destiny seemed so much warmer in the show than in the comics. Guess not.

For my final question. Why the fuck were the Endless so happy and cheerful and almost giddy when they met Daniel? That was so so so weird? What, everything is just going to be perfect now? And I had literally just checked the timer and saw there were 7 minutes left, so I was not at all expecting that to be the last scene, and when the show ended it was totally jarring. I guess we needed 7 minutes for the credits and for the fates to be smug assholes, I forgot.

I guess there was no time for Desire and Rose to meet. No time to learn what Nuala and Matthew will do next. (When Lucienne was saying she might move on, I honestly wondered if they were setting it up so that Nuala would be the new Dreaming librarian?) No time to deal with Matthew's emotions. No time for any hint of Exiles or any hint that Morpheus is still with us in the shifting sands of the soft places (unless that's maybe what they were going for when it looked like he and Daniel were possibly looking at each other for a second in the Shakespeare memory?). No time for Calliope TO HAVE A SINGLE FUCKING LINE. Great news everyone, no need to worry about whether the captions will mislabel her or not if she doesn't speak!!!

There was however plenty of time to devote to whether or not Johanna Constantine and the Corinthian can have a functional romantic relationship.

I...

What.

I didn't even hate it, but also just, what?

(And also it is just me or was there the tiniest bit of subtext of "good news they brought him back straight this time"???? LMAO I'm sure that's not what they intended, I'm sure he isn't straight and is still super pan or whatever, but still... idk.)

The first time I read The Kindly Ones I hated almost every single second of it and I thought Marc Hempel's art was ugly.

I have since then reread it many times.

And my opinion has drastically changed.

In that I now think Marc Hempel's art is FANTASTIC. Honestly I can't even believe that I used to hate it. It grew on me so so much and he is now without a doubt one of my favorite Sandman artists.

:)

Oh what, the story? Did I change my mind about the story too?

...

I tried to. Like very, very hard.

I'll let you all know if I ever succeed ;)

But as of now: I have read the end of this story many times; and I have read many different interpretations of the ending; and I have yet to get it all to take shape in my mind as anything that isn't... psychologically poisonous and absolutely horrific, for me personally? Like unbearably painful, and not the good kind of painful either.

Here is my Sandman confession. I do so poorly with the ending of this story, that a while ago I said to myself: "Self. This story fucks you up. There doesn't seem to be a way for you to engage with this story in a way that is psychologically healthy. You need to leave this story behind."

And I fucking tried to! And failed! Because the stupid story had gotten so deep into my bones, and the parts of it that I loved, I loved so so hard, and I fucking tried to set the story aside and I wasn't able to???

So that was weird.

Anyway, The Sandman and I now exist in a strange balancing act of "I am beyond obsessed with you I love most of you so so much I hate some of you so so much," which seems to be... ok. (Obviously these are my feelings about the story. The story has no feelings about me lol)

Every time I reread TKO to see if I'll hate it less this time around, I get to this part and practically start foaming at the mouth, because here we have: "Lyta-who-deserved-better", "Carla-who-deserved-better", and "Daniel-who-deserved-better", enjoying some ice cream.

And I can't cope.